On customer service
Rob Wilmot
Proven Tech Entrepreneur and Founder with several multimillion-pound exits | Early-stage investor | Experienced Chairman and CEO | Advisor | Mentor | TEDx Speaker | Philanthropist | Artist | Neurodivergent and proud!
I went to my local Co-op round the corner today to grab a meal-deal in-between my back-to-back meetings.
I'm working from home, and this Co-op is my local, which means I'm in it a lot (not so much for the meal-deals.)
I got distracted by a phone call and didn't pick up a packet of crisps, so the price was more than the meal-deal (I was off the phone by then.) The person behind the till is the nosey one. The one who points out those little details that they've noticed, the one that tells you that your missus has been in buying wine, and now you're buying more. The one that makes you feel uneasy.
She had keyed in the items, and I was about to pay when I noticed that I hadn't completed the meal-deal as she'd told me the price and it seemed higher than I expected. So I said I'd get the packet of crisps. She shrugged, and I got my meal-deal - at the right price.
Now, this is an unusual experience at my local Co-op. All the other members of the team there say hello - without being invasive - and will actually stop you paying too much for things like an incomplete meal deal or you can get a pack of four Snickers for a pound, rather than one for a pound (they do excellent offers at the Co-op, and my daughter loves Snickers.) They don't even call the police when I forget to pay after filling up the car and have just driven off.
I'm sure that the Co-op trains their teams very well to make sure customers get the best value as it encourages loyalty in a very competitive market. But it's more than that. It comes across that the majority of the team enjoy their jobs and appreciate being able to get to know their regulars, saying the happy hello and making sure their customers are satisfied too. They have become an important part of the community they serve.
So how does the unhelpful nosey member of the team impact my perception of the Co-op? It doesn't really, as the broader experience outweighs the slight inconvenience of having to deal with this one member of staff and I'm a captive audience in terms of convenience - there's nothing else open that's even close to my home.
But what if I could be bothered to shop somewhere else?
Is there a tipping point where the attitude of the person or people delivering a service makes us walk away from a product, price or convenience?
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5 年This is a really interesting article and a really interesting point. I think our tolerance of bad service is related to the perceived value of what we are buying. We make a trade off. For example we will tolerate a level of service in Aldi that we wouldn't tolerate in Waitrose. What is normal in Aldi - chaotic shelves, small aisles, no staff on hand - would be considered poor service in Waitrose.?
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5 年This is so well written. ?It brought to mind too many shops where I've had this experience. ?1 of my old favorites in fact. ?I shop there rarely now, because it's small and there's 1 salesperson who always manages to say just the totally inappropriate and wrong thing to say. ?On the reverse, I visit the UK about once a year, and always go out of my way to shop at @janlowen in Farnham because of her beautiful customer service and choices. It's a special treat. ?She's so warm & kind....makes the trip!